Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1887-09-08
pUT IT UNDER THE LENS

| About This Valuable Instruments.
perhaps Parnell will demand that
the microscope be used on the forged
letter the Lond1n Times published this
wcek-thc same way we detected the
famous Morey letter." remarked Prof
John Phin in the hearing of n Mail ana
Express reporter. Prof Phen is o
leading authority on microscopy, anG
was the man who detected with mi
croscope, the fraudulent forgery Of Gen
Garfield's signature to the Morey let
ter. The talk led to the subject OF
microscopy and its recent development
here. The professor says that micro
scopic societies are now q feature OF
nearly every large city in the union.
The interest in the study has increased
many fold the past few years. and now
all classes of persons take the most ac-
tive interest in it, lawyers, merchants.
and clergymen. study rs zealously and
make as close research as physicians
and scientific men, to whom it is pro-
fessional matter. Some of the best stu
dents are amateurs. and the president
OF the New York society is u clergy
man. This society has upward of one
hundred members and meets twice a
month. Often at these meetings eighty
to one hundred tables are prepared
each with microscope and q novel sub
ject for exam nation.
The ladies, especially, are taking
great interest in the study" added the
professor, land they are wonderfully
adapted, by boti taste and dclicacy OF
touch, for the work Why, we have
in tn S country what Europe does not
have. microscopic society composed
wholly of women. This is at the
Wesleyan Female college in Massa.
chusetts. 1t is, too, very ilourishu.
body. We have also, nowadays, pro.
fess!onal microscopic analysis. There
are probably twenty-five or thirty in
this city. They are kept busy cxamin
ing into adulterations of food. and in
forgerics their work is most impor.
tant. The fact is. as an instrument OF
research, the microscop, is second to
none. There is hardly any department
of science in which student can hope
to reach emincnce without Il familiar
ity W tn this instrument. In chemistry
Is services have been very important,
and in geology and mincralogy it has
opened up new fields of Research,
which almost promise to revo!utionizp
these sciences. One of the most i'm
portant of recent changes brought
about in a practical way by the micro
scope is in brewing. By it low form
of animal life has been discovered.
which rots the beer, and measures
have been taken to exclude this.
There are two mistakes made by be-
ginners in the study which should be
avoided. One is in surprising that il
is only by means of very expensive and
complicated instruments that any Tn ng
of value can be accomplished. Now.
while it is certain that in some depart
ments of study none but the very best
microscopes are of any value. it is
equally certain that a very wide range
of study and of pract Cal work can be
thoroughly cultivated by means of APP
paratus of very moderate cost and of
great simplicity of construction. The
great discoveries of Gutenberg, which
at the most would not command S25.
The other mistake is of prec sely the
opposite kind. 1t is not ut all unusual
to meet persons who seem TO think that
all that is necessary in orler to become
microscopic is to buy IN croscOpe
and place objects under it. Truth lies
between these extremes. No progress
can be made without steady applica-
ton and persistent labor, but any per-
son of fair average ab lily and mod
crate degree of perseverance can soon
learn TO follow the beaten track. at
least. if not to branch out into OIL igi-
nal research"
'What are some of the most curious
facts you know about MICROSCOPIC"
well. probably the most wonderful
was the writing of Webb AMI Peters.
They wrote the Lords PRAYER and the
commandments with diamond in let
tiers so fine that if the whole bible were
written, and i'll same proportion, it
might be written twelve tines on a
square inch. This writing | have my
self seen. and believe one such slide
is in the army museum at Washington
at the present time. have the Lords
prayer written in letters so small that
if the whole bible were written in the
same proportion it could be put on the
half of postal-card. have also tho
Declaration of independence, the frame
work OF which is composed of portraits
of the signers reduced 50 small BY mi.
cro-photography that TO the naked eye
it is no larger than pinhsad One OF
the most celebrated uses to VIII ;ch the
microscope has been put was during
the Franco Pru>sian war. 1t was easy
enough TO go out of Paris, you re-
member, by balloons, but very difficult
W Stb DiCh. "cIl' lHpSc nv went Out
and wished to communicate with their
friends in the city took carrier
pigeons with them. In London
and elsewhere these people
had their letters printed on Il large
sheet. This was photographed and re.
duccd TO one inch square. Then the
reduced size, on collodium film, was
rolled aud placed in crows quill and
the quill was tied to the midfeather
of the pigeons tail. Then the bird
was sent flying home TO Paris. The
film was unroled and the letters de-
ciphercd under microscope. Several
hundred d fferent messages would be
sent on one OF these pieces, which were
afterward copied and sent to those to
whom they were addressed.
81 want to say word about the
popular notion that every drop of water